10 Lyrics From ‘Stankonia’ That Still Resonate 17 Years Later

The ATLiens' rhymes don't have an expiration date

On this very day in the year 2000, Outkast‘s fourth studio album Stankonia was released. The album was certified gold by the RIAA within a week of it’s release and with huge singles like, “Ms. Jackson” and “So Fresh, So Clean,” the project was both critically acclaimed and well-received by consumers.

Andre 3000 and Big Boi have mastered dominating hip-hop conversations, even without having released a joint project in over a decade. It’s not easy to have an album with such ground-breaking bars and oddball production still resonate nearly 20 years later, but the ATLiens have proven with pretty much every album they made that their creations transcend time.

On this 17 year anniversary of the release of Stankonia, let’s look back on some of the bars that sound like they could have been written yesterday.

“Snappin’ and Trappin’”

“N***a you stuck like a truck in red dirt, you’s in church

And I’m the deacon speakin’ while ya tweakin’

The preacher preachin’, reachin’, teachin’

Speakin’, being, breathin’

You’re not, your clock stop, and now you’re laying in a pretty box

And now pastor is only talking ’bout the pretty parts of your life

Your brother f***in’ your damn wife

You look for the pearly white gates, but you realize your fate

It’s too late, cause you hate, you hate”

“So Fresh, So Clean”

“Those huge baby eyes, get to runnin’ off at they mouth

And tellin’ me everything that’s on your nasty mind

They say you’re malnutritioned, in need of vitamin D

And invitin’ me to that tingle in your spine”

“Spaghetti Junction”

“Black man, white man, Jew man, ain’t no joke

Remember me and my cousin used to sit up on the porch

And talk about when we get older; now we up against the ropes

Yeah, they kickin’ n****s door down, ’cause it ain’t no dope on the streets

And a quarter pound of feet weed, that’s all a n***a like me need“

“I’ll Call Before I Come”

“It’s like a brand new pair of Reeboks or a junkie freshly detoxed

You feel the tingling all over like convulsions or the rooster pox

I used to not give a damn

But now I make it a point just to please you

So you can go back and tell all your buddies, I Pretty D’d you”

“Red Velvet”

“How can you measure a n***a by multiple figures he may got, got, got

Had he not purchased the newest Mercedes

That lose it’s value soon as you drive that b***h off the lot, lot, lot